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Nothing in Patrick Foisy's loft is without its place or purpose. A trio of broken metal clarinets serve as hanging light fixtures, an antique television is home to a pair of fish and with the addition of a circular piece of glass and some clips, a snare drum is transformed into an end table.

Even the books are meticulously positioned to look as though they've been left lying around haphazardly - the 1974 Playboy cookbook in the kitchen, a book on industrial decor in his industrial-themed office.

Foisy is, by his own admission, slightly obsessive-compulsive.

The 41-year-old Grade 5 teacher inherited the collector gene from his late grandfather, Noël, who used to collect vintage cars. A perpetual businessman, he owned a gas station, a car dealership, a wartime powdered-milk company and a tavern. It was there, at La Brasserie Coloni-ale, where a 10-year-old Foisy first laid eyes on a pinball machine.

That day, he vowed the first thing he would ever own as an adult would be a pinball machine. So when, upon visiting his grandparents' house near Lake Champlain, he discovered they'd bought one for the family, Foisy - by then a young teenager - did something unusual.

"The first thing I did, was not play. I looked at it, freaked out and then I went for a swim. I savoured the moment. And when I came back an hour later, I went: 'Now's the time!' " he says.

Later, as a teenager, he settled on a second goal: a Volkswagen Beetle.

"This was all about my grandfather," Foisy says. "He was a huge influence on me."

Unfortunately, when Noël died, the pinball machine went to an uncle despite everyone in the family knowing it was intended for Patrick. The then-university age Foisy, though disappointed, set out to find one all his own. However, by that point he'd already fulfilled at least one of his childhood dreams.

"I'm glad I got my first Beetle before my grandfather died. He rode in it with me, and we redid the interior together," Foisy says.

There are no pictures of his uncle hanging on his loft's walls, or of his grandfather, for that matter. But there are photographs of the first inhabitants of his condo building: the employees of the Viau cookie factory.

The 182-unit condo complex buried deep in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve was first built in 1906 by Charles-Théodore Viau, the creator of the Whippet; the three exposed brick walls enclosing Foisy's living room served as the stairwell for the women's entrance to the factory.

Touches of the Viau era are sprinkled throughout Foisy's loft, which he bought in 2007 - a pair of wax paper peanut and candy bags bearing the Viau emblem hang, framed, by the front door, while a four-tiered Viau cookie display case houses empty cookie boxes from a bygone era, its exclusively English-language lettering the only indication that Foisy actually bought it in Syracuse, N.Y. An original envelope and receipt dated from 1901 hang facing three black and white pictures of factory workers.

On the sink counter in the bicycle-themed bathroom sits a pewter-coloured picture frame, inside of which is a photograph given to Foisy by a friend of her grandfather on a Viau cookie delivery bicycle.

Aside from the model bicycles, bicycle-themed art and books, and the bike tire mirror from Ikea - "It's one of the only modern things you'll find in the loft," he says - the bathroom also houses an old taximeter, a lifeguard flotation device and a functional Watchman.

The taximeter is part of a running gag throughout the loft. "In order to pay the mortgage, there's a lot of things you need to, if you're a guest, pay for," Foisy says mischievously. He also jokes about shaking guests down using the black Bell System public telephone, the gumball machine and the parking meter that, if you overstay your welcome, gives you a "violation," he says, turning the knob so that a red warning flag pops up.

Foisy was recently crowned a victor on TV station CASA's Ma maison bien aimée, a show that awards a $1,000 prize to the highest-scoring homeowner among four competitors based on the merits of their interior decorating skills. The win came easily; his 1,000-square-foot loft is carefully curated. Even the interior doors were found at a place that recycles old doors; he brought the doorknobs, found separately, to a guy with thousands of keys who, for about $20, will sift through his collection to find one that fits. Finally, the panes of frosted glass on the bathroom and office doors bear the handwritten words "Employés seulement" and "Entrepôt chocolat," respectively.

"I like to consider myself a creative guy," Foisy says.

He rarely visits an antique shop, a flea market or a garage sale without having a specific project in mind; the fruits of his overactive imagination have manifested themselves as a Dictaphone-turned-bottle rack, a clothes hamper made of an old Canada Post mailbox and a massive 1950s chrome cash register that doubles as a cutlery drawer. "There's not a lot of stuff in the loft that has absolutely no purpose," he says.

This attention to detail is a byproduct of his identification with the mod esthetic, a lifestyle he was introduced to by a new friend when his family relocated to Toronto for a few years. It was during that time that he first listened to the Who and saw Quadro-phenia, a film loosely based on the band's rock opera of the same name. This, together with his exposure to 2 Tone ska band the Specials' eponymous first album, solidified his identity as a mod.

"I liked the fact that mods are rebels that dress sharply. They can blend in unnoticed in society," Foisy says.

"Mods are really detail-oriented. It's all about those subtle details," he adds. It's that esthetic and attention to detail that inform his loft's decor, as well as ensure he's got a Vespa and a Lambretta in the garage and a closet full of well-tailored suits and neatly pressed Fred Perry shirts.

For the most part, his wife, Nikki, is accommodating, though she's implemented a rule that whenever a new, relatively large piece comes in, an old one has to go out. The result is an uncluttered space despite the number of individual pieces within it; the 150-square-foot mezzanine recently built by Foisy's father to act as their bedroom also helps add a degree of spaciousness.

Next year, when the couple moves to the Machinerie lofts being built in St-Henri, Foisy will part with many of his Viau artifacts (he intends to sell them to the condo owners' association). But rather than looking at the move as starting all over again, he's looking forward to having a new space to decorate, like everything he does, with one foot in the past and eyes looking to the future.

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